


What R2 Knew

by CuddlyKoala



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Character Death, Grey Obi-Wan, M/M, Obi-Wan POV, R2 awesomeness, Torture, at least not the perfect Jedi, serious situation treated as crack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-06
Updated: 2017-04-06
Packaged: 2018-10-15 19:30:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10556480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CuddlyKoala/pseuds/CuddlyKoala
Summary: The one where R2 saves the day by being the most perceptive and proactive droid of the lot. Also the one where there is a lot of beeping (from R2) and a lot of hurting (from Palpatine). Oh, and a very confused Anakin.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Title shamelessly lifted from Henry James' excellent What Maisie Knew.  
> This was written on a rainy lunchbreak in response to a comment by goddessofroyalty on Tumblr in [this](http://cuddlykoalas.tumblr.com/post/158076318596/goddessofroyalty-lillysora3-lesbiankenobi#notes/) post  
> Originally posted on Tumblr

Anakin Skywalker was, clearly, not a happy Jedi. Oh, he was in wonderful terms with his (ex) Master, had a lovely Padawan, connections to the highest levels of the Republic political ~~warfare~~ life, a reasonable amount of friends amongst his fellow Knights (though not within the Council, but, well… they were the Council, they weren’t supposed to be friendly with anyone) and elsewhere.

Still, he wasn’t happy.

It should be noted Anakin was rarely happy, a trait that should have pleased the Jedi Council since they fought against intense emotional displays and happiness was therefore not to be encouraged amongst the Jedi. Instead they preached _contentment._

Anakin wasn’t content either and that didn’t please the Council.

Not that they were ever content with him.

The problem in that particular respect was that Obi-Wan Kenobi, (ex) Master, Jedi Knight and Republic General wasn’t pleased either. Because he couldn’t understand why his (ex) Padawan wasn’t content. Or happy, really, he wasn’t picky.

“Anakin!” he chided for the twelfth time this morning, voice terser than he intended and betraying his concern. “Where is your mind?”

“I’m right here, Master,” the young General replied with a distracted air.

Obi-Wan dragged a hand on his face and stroked his beard. His negotiating skills didn’t seem to have any effect on Anakin and that didn’t do at all. And it wasn’t as if Anakin could even lie convincingly; there was, after all, the little matter of their remaining bond.

The one they never could find the time to sever.

“Anakin,” he started, more gently this time. “You’ve been distracted all morning. Surely there is a reason?” _Perhaps he should offer meditation? No, Anakin was never receptive to it_. “Are you having nightmares again?”

He could see he had hit his target when Anakin startled.

“Maybe…?” his voice trailed, obviously unsure of the reaction he’d get.

Obi-Wan sighed, resisting the urge to tug at his beard. At this rate, he wouldn’t have any left and while the thing was a pain to care for to his exacting standards, he rather liked it.

“What are they about?” he asked quietly, careful to keep any judgement out of his voice.

“R2.” It was clear Anakin didn’t expect to be believed. _Actually…_

“R2?” Obi-Wan repeated, incredulous.

“Yes.”

“All right.” Obi-Wan set his datapad on the table and walked to the bench in front of his Padawan. Ex Padawan. Whatever.

“What happens to R2 in your dreams, then?”

Anakin shook his head silently.

“Anakin, if you want me to help, you’ve got to tell me something.”

The Jedi hunched his shoulders, a reflexive reaction which threw Obi-Wan back to his childhood years. He thought Anakin had overcome that reaction years ago.

Well, obviously not.

He leant forward and touched slightly Anakin’s shoulder.

“Tell me, dear one.”

“You’re going to laugh at me,” Anakin protested.

Obi-Wan closed his eyes briefly.

“I’m not going to mock either you or your dreams. I’m not going to dismiss your concern either. Not ever again, Anakin. I promise.”

Anakin leant into his touch a bit and frowned.

“I don’t know. It just seems so realistic, somehow. And it keeps happening, every night.”

“What keeps happening every night, Padawan?” the title slipped out of Obi-Wan’s lips without thought. Anakin didn’t react either.

“R2 kills the Chancellor.” Anakin rushed the words out of his mouth.

The older Knight blinked.

“You have a recurring nightmare about R2 killing Chancellor Palpatine?” he clarified.

“Yes,” Anakin nodded.

“All right.” Obi-Wan folded his hands inside his sleeves to keep them from betraying his… well, he didn’t know what he was feeling. “Tell me everything.”

“There isn’t much to tell,” Anakin warned. “Only R2 getting in Palpatine’s office and killing him.”

“Killing him how?”

“That’s the thing! It changes every time. The initial setting is exactly the same and the outcome is always the same too, it’s just the method that varies.”

“Have you tried…?” Obi-Wan couldn’t believe what he was about to say, but for the sake of his friend’s peace of mind, he was willing to do many things he ordinarily wouldn’t. There wasn’t anything ordinary about Anakin, anyway. “Have you tried checking his memory base and his root programming?”

“Of course I have! There is nothing showing any kind of malicious intent. R2 is an astromech, his basic purpose is to help people and more specifically me. True, his programming has slightly evolved from his initial coding but not in a proportion that wouldn’t suggest anything like… like that!”

Obi-Wan raised a hand, trying to calm the younger Jedi down.

“And have you considered it’s a way for your mind to tell you the Chancellor isn’t trustworthy?” He treaded carefully, knowing how touchy a subject this was.

“You always come back to this,” Anakin replied, with a resentful tone. “But, to answer your question, yes, I did consider it.”

“And…?” the Knight prompted.

“I don’t know. Maybe… maybe you’ve got a point. I mean, there are things I don’t understand, but…”

“But…?” Obi-Wan asked.

“I dunno. I guess you’re going to tell me the future is always in motion and to not worry about what may be?”

“In this particular circumstance, I believe that’d would part of my advice, yes. In addition to keeping a close eye on the Chancellor. I’d even be willing to lend a hand, if it helps.”

Obi-Wan permitted himself a smile behind his beard. Keeping an eye on the Chancellor in search of suspicious behaviours wasn’t going to be a hardship.

***

He kept an eye on R2, as well. The droid never gave any sign of murderous intent toward anyone. Fortunately. Though Obi-Wan didn’t have the same close relationship to the astromech Anakin did, he bore no ill-will toward him and didn’t wish to be the one to tell Anakin he had to reprogram his little friend.

However… it was true R2 took his mission to help Anakin out very seriously. And with a rather…personal take on it.

Obi-Wan toyed with the idea of going to the Council with his concern. He dismissed it quickly enough. That’d be a betrayal of Anakin’s trust and that wasn’t something he wanted to do ever again. He considered having a chat with R2 but his mastery of binary left much to be desired. In the end, he settled for his original idea. Observing was good. And Anakin did seem a bit better after speaking out his concern.

***

The rescue mission had gone exactly as intended. Well, not. Because Anakin had to put his personal touch on it. Obi-Wan smiled fondly. Still, rescuing Chancellor Palpatine wasn’t your everyday, run-of-the-mill mission. The stakes were…high.

They sat in the cockpit, the politician behind them. Obi-Wan repressed the shiver running down his spine. He had a bad feeling about having him there. He turned around under the pretense of checking if everything was all right. To his surprise, the Chancellor looked very pale and somewhat…sweaty? Which would have been totally understandable under the circumstances, except he hadn’t seemed so worried while he was in the enemy’s hands. Delayed shock, perhaps?

His eyes slid to R2, standing next to Palpatine and beeping gently. Softly. And the Chancellor looked sweatier by the minute. Yes, there was a definite ominous note in R2’s beeping. And his rolling around was more… more… Obi-Wan didn’t know what, but more something. Definitely.

“R2?” Anakin called. “Could you calculate the route back to Coruscant? I believe the Chancellor wants to come back home as soon as possible.”

R2 beeped again in assent and the difference was quite…audible.

Once he was done, he rolled back to the Chancellor whose eyes were now nearly white in fear. Curious… Obi-Wan hadn’t seen that kind of reaction to seemingly non-threatening behaviours in non-Force sensitives before. Oh well… Perhaps Palpatine had some latent degree of Force sensitivity. It’d explain his rather striking successes. Though he had never sensed anything from him. Hmmm… that bore consideration. R2 never stopped beeping calmly the whole time and Palpatine never stopped looking sick.

***

Life resumed as usual. More or less. War was still on, Council was still harping at Anakin and Anakin was still snarking back and looking more depressed by the moment.

Obi-Wan was running out of ways to cheer his friend up. That was new. And not the right kind of new. The nightmares were back with a vengeance and Anakin kept screaming his nights away.

Obi-Wan kept searching his mind to find a solution to that particular problem. He had visions too. He should know what to do to help Anakin. Instead, he had to settle for holding the younger man through his nightmares and waking him up as soon as he was able. Anakin insisted it helped but the shadows under his eyes were growing deeper and darker by the day and frankly, Obi-Wan’s too.

The Council’s unreasonable demands didn’t help either and Obi-Wan had to refrain himself from giving them a good scold. He was considering not stopping Anakin the next time.

If they wanted to spy on the Chancellor, they could kriffing well do it themselves instead of asking this from Anakin, who was just as confused as ever over his position both within the Council and at Palpatine’s side.

He itched to help him. He just had to… Oh. _Oh, but wait…_

He crossed his legs to hide his sudden shift in energy and stored his idea in a corner of his mind. For now, he needed to focus on the proceedings.

He found R2 in the hangar, beeping angrily at another astromech. Obi-Wan had no idea what the discord was about but it seemed fairly serious to the tiny droid. Well, he was serious too.

“R2?” he called. The droid beeped one last time at his companion and rolled to Obi-Wan, dome spinning questioningly.

“Hello R2,” Obi-Wan started pleasantly. “Would you care to come with me for a minute or two?” Apparently R2 had no objection and followed the Jedi Master to a secluded corner of the hangar.

“R2, you care about Anakin, right?” The beeping that followed was rather plain, even for Obi-Wan’s admittedly limited understanding of binary. “Of course, stupid question, I know. But what I want to know is how far you’d be willing to go to help him?”

The trill which followed was one Obi-Wan had heard countless times before. Especially when Anakin was preparing something stupid and daring and probably potentially going to kill him. And R2 was going to support him the whole time. Grumbling-beeping all the time because he wasn’t _that_ kind of droid.

“The Council has reasons to suspect the Chancellor isn’t quite as…shall we say… attached to the principles of the Republic and that his personal integrity is perhaps…questionable. To that effect, they have asked Anakin to spy on him.”

The angry answering beep was enough to tell Obi-Wan all he needed to know about his opinion both on the Council and on the object of their ire.

Funny how one didn’t need to understand one’s language when they had a common objective. Obi-Wan stored that thought for future negotiating endeavours.

“I want to protect Anakin,” he sighed. “But I can’t watch the Chancellor at the same time. On the other hand, we both know he isn’t quite the…kindest person in the Republic.” R2 rolled away without even a beep. Obi-Wan thought there was a very determined quality to his rolling.

***

“Master Kenobi, you shall go to Utapau and put an end to this situation with Grievous once and for all.”

Oi-Wan stroked his lightsaber meditatively.

“No, I don’t believe that to be the wisest course of action.”

The look on Mace’s face was almost comical.

“I beg your pardon?”

“The Force tells me to stay. That leaving now would be a mistake with rather… _would he dare say grievous? No, that’d be laying it on a bit thick_ … unfortunate consequences.”

“Unfortunate consequences, you say?” Yoda intervened. “Seen something, have you?”

Perhaps. As you well know, one can never be certain of the future,” he conceded “but in this particular instance, I’m reasonably certain the Force is being so insistent for a specific reason.”

“Then Master Fisto will go to Utapau,” Windu nodded to the green-skinned Master who nodded back. Obi-Wan suspected him to have asked for the assignment in the first place. If anyone had a… _grievance_ … to air out with the Separatist General, it was him. And Obi-Wan couldn’t blame him in the slightest. If that had been Anakin… Well, if that had been Anakin, Grievous would be dead. Deactivated. Dismembered. And Obi-Wan as well, if he were entirely honest about it. But that wasn’t perhaps the best of thoughts to entertain while in a Council session.

He went back to the quarters he shared with Anakin quite content. At least the Force was happy. No contentment limitations for it.

***

The bond he shared with Anakin flared with pain and Obi-Wan jumped out of his seat before he could even think about it. He took a precious second to focus on the location of the Jedi. The Senate.

 _How unsurprising_.

He reached the palace in record time, lightsaber in hand, ignored the guards, and burst into Palpatine’s office. This was not the time for niceties.

Anakin was back to the wall, anguish written all over his face. He was crying, Obi-Wan noticed, and he studiously pushed back the anger he felt at the sight. Now was not the time to fall. Not if he wanted to help Anakin.

He faced Palpatine, stepping between him and his former apprentice, taking in the sight of the two red lightsabers in his hands and the reek of the dark side of the Force permeating the room.

Well, see that. Palpatine was Force-sensitive, after all. Very much Force-sensitive.

He breathed in, ready to speak the traditional words of arrest when the look on the Chancellor’s marked face shifted. To a look of utter panic. Obi-Wan used the distraction to make his move, soon joined by Anakin. He didn’t have to look back to hear the soft rolling of small wheels on the thick carpet of the Chancellor’s office.

He didn’t have to look back to hear the cry escaping Palpatine’s lips as he got shocked by a large burst of electricity.

Obi-wan spared a thought to the lightning the Siths seemed so fond of and concluded R2 had chosen well.

However, the astromech wasn’t quite done and the extendable, multipurpose arm soon reached inside the Chancellor who was madly scrambling to access the Force. The Jedi both stepped forward, lightsabers at his neck.

Soon the smell of burning flesh invaded the room and they realized the – _now former, Obi-Wan was rather certain_ – Chancellor was being roasted from the inside. He exchanged a look with Anakin who had dried his tears and was watching in the scene in fascination.

“He threatened everything I have,” the younger Jedi stated, in an almost serene voice. “Said he would kill you and destroy the Jedi Order.”

The acrid scent of a pool of acid rose from the writhing Sith.

“He engineered the war,” Anakin kept on going in that same dreamlike voice.

Bones erupted from the skin with a sickening crack.

“He’s responsible for pretty much everything that has been going wrong in the Republic for the past ten years. He groomed me to become his apprentice. He managed to manipulate Master Sifo-Dyas into creating the clones and implanted a chip inside their brain with orders to annihilate the Jedi. Fives was right, in the end,” he concluded with a small, tired sigh.

The flesh started to dissolve and Palpatine’s cries stopped.

Obi-Wan switched off his ‘saber and embraced the Jedi.

“I’m so sorry, Anakin. I should never have left you with him.”

“I should have realized when I dreamt of R2 killing him. Though the torture is new,” he commented in a detached voice.

The Jedi Master stroked silently his partner’s back then, when he felt he was ready to leave the room, led him gently outside by his hand.

Only when they stepped out of the room, Obi-Wan realized R2 had never stopped beeping calmly.


End file.
